Former teammate of Clemens, Pettitte, wants to look to future

Published 6:00 pm, Wednesday, February 13, 2008

AP Sports Writer

Houston Astros catcher Brad Ausmus was glad he missed Roger Clemens' appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Clemens and former personal trainer Brian McNamee told their contradicting stories under oath on Wednesday about whether the seven-time Cy Young winner was injected with steroids and human growth hormone.

"It's upsetting because Roger is a friend of mine," said Ausmus, Clemens' teammate in 2004-06. "Certainly, you don't want to see a friend suffer. But because I didn't see it, I wasn't watching the television feeling the angst and the tension that was occurring. "

Ausmus missed the televised coverage because he was flying from San Diego to Kissimmee, Fla., where pitchers and catchers reported on Thursday. He's exchanged text messages with Clemens recently, but hasn't spoken with him since before the release of the Mitchell Report.

He said he hopes Clemens is "vindicated," although Ausmus admitted he doesn't know all the facts.

"Whether this is a complete fabrication or 100 percent true, he's a friend of mine," Ausmus said. "Even if it is 100 percent true, he wasn't hurting anybody. We're not talking about a violent crime here.

"He's a good person, he was a good teammate and he's a good friend. I'm pulling for him 100 percent to be completely vindicated."

A key component at Wednesday's hearing was testimony from Andy Pettitte, who also pitched for the Astros from 2004-06. Pettitte said in a sworn affidavit that he was injected with human growth hormone in 2004 and discussed HGH with Clemens at Astros spring training in 2005. Clemens said he remembered no such conversation.

Ausmus doesn't know what to believe.

"Nothing is shocking me at this point," he said. "I'm like many people _ tired of hearing about it."

Roy Oswalt, part of the Astros' formidable starting rotation for three seasons with Pettitte and Clemens, had even less to say about the testimony by his former teammates.

"I'm ready for the games to start," said Oswalt. "I don't keep in touch with that."

The Astros will face more questions about steroids and the Mitchell Report throughout spring training.

All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada, named in the report and now the subject of an FBI investigation, signed with the Astros the day before the report was released. Tejada told Houston television station KRIV on Thursday that he would report to camp on Tuesday, the day Houston's first full-squad workout is scheduled.

"I promised everybody there I am going to be there on the first day when spring training starts. I am going to be one of the first ones to get to the ballpark because I can't wait to go there," Tejada told the station in a telephone interview from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Clemens' son, Koby, is a minor-leaguer in the Astros system and can participate in a mini-camp that starts on Feb. 25. His father has joined him at Astros spring training the past two seasons.

Ausmus said baseball should focus more on eliminating steroids than dwelling on what players did in the past.

"We can continue to talk about it," he said, "or we can just move on and try to fix it, which I think baseball is doing a very firm job in doing at this point."

Ausmus said Wednesday's hearing was "a little unnecessary" and compared it to a "civil suit taking form in front of Congress." He also complimented lawmakers for tackling the issue and baseball for implementing stricter drug testing.

"I understand why Congress is getting involved," he said. "They want to see baseball clean up its act and rightly so. I think baseball is doing that. I think they have turned the corner and are completely on the right track in terms of trying to eradicate performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.

"Is it ever going to be 100 percent foolproof? Absolutely not," he said. "No chance, because you're always going to have someone trying to beat the system. But they're taking all the steps they can at this point to try and clean up as much as we can. That's all you can ask."

Ausmus hopes the start of the season diverts attention away from steroids.

"But for the foreseeable future, somebody is always going to write about it, or question a player whose name is mentioned, if he's still playing," Ausmus said. "It's going to take some time to disappear. I'm not implying that we shouldn't have been concerned about it. The important thing is to correct it, not beat the dead horse."